Hi All,

I ran across this problem at more than one site.  When you go into Central AdministrationàOperationsàBackup and Restore  and attempt to queue a SharePoint backup, it appears to simply sit there without ever starting.  The status message reads “Status: Preparing current backup/restore job. If the backup/restore job does not begin after five minutes, make sure that the SharePoint Timer Service is running.”  Normally the job starts within seconds, but now it never begins.  If you click “Timer Job Definitions” you see that there is an object named “Backup/Restore”, but if you go to Timer Job Status, you see that it is not running.

Clicking “Refresh” is about as effective as repeatedly pushing the elevator call button to make it hurry up.

No errors or messages appear in the event logs.  This is unusual because SharePoint is very prolific in its errors when something is wrong.  Even delving into the SharePoint logs at C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Web Server Extensions\12\LOGS\ bears little useful information. 

I’ve seen this both on MOSS and WSS servers.

Well, I did a little digging and I found someone else who is having the same problem.

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/software/aspnet/29497541/wss-30-backup-problems.aspx

It appears that the recent Daylight Savings Time patch (or the subsequent clock change) has screwed something up in the SharePoint timer.  What’s going on it that the job is starting very, very late.  Furthermore, once it starts, it apparently takes a longer time to finish.  A couple of people reported that when they modified the DST clock settings on the server hosting their WSS sites so that it would not “Automatically adjust clock for Daylight Savings Time”, the problem vanished. 

I haven’t been able to verify this, since I am currently at a site where the WSS implementation is sitting on a domain controller.  Rolling the clock back on a DC isn’t a smart move.

Have any of you seen this issue?